This invention relates to a connector device comprising female and male connector housings of insulating material respectively incorporating female and male connector terminals of conducting material, which female and male connector terminals are adapted so that they complete joined electric circuits on being brought into mutual engagement, and more particularly to a connector device such that once the female and male connector housings are bound with each other and the female and male connector terminals are consequently joined to each other, their separation is extremely difficult.
In the conventional connector, electric continuity between a pair of conductors has been accomplished by electrically and mechanically fastening a male terminal to the leading end of one of the conductors and a female terminal to that of the other conductor respectively either by soldering or compression bonding and thereafter forcibly inserting the male terminal into the female terminal. Numerous connector devices have been proposed in which the male and female terminals are disposed within housings of insulating material so as to protect the connectors against mechanical troubles and eliminate all possibilities of human accidents.
Although these connector devices vary widely in many respects, what applies in common to them all is the fact that separation of the male terminals from their respective female terminals is accomplished relatively easily. This is quite natural in consideration of the nature of connectors. There are, however, times when the female and male connector housings are desired to be bound to each other so that their separation is extremely difficult and substantially impossible. For example, in some portions of the circuits in the electrical system of an automobile, use may be found for a connector device adapted for such inseparable fastening of connector housings. In the case of a connector device which permits free separation of the connector housings, when the owner of the automobile separates the connector housings from their union while modifying or repairing the circuits, the automobile manufacturer has no way to know this fact. If the automobile in question happens to develop a trouble from some defect in the electrical system, therefore, there may be times when no definite judgment can be drawn as to whether the responsibility for the trouble should be assumed by the owner or the manufacturer. In such portions, it is appropriate to use a connector device so designed that the connector housings thereof, on being fastened to each other, separate with extreme difficulty and, if forcibly separated at all, sustain breakage at some part or other of the housings. In the sense that this connector device retains the aforementioned breakage as a clear sign that such force separation has been made on the connector housings, it fulfills an additional function of sealing the connector device in its fastened state.
For use in a circuit such that accidental breakage of electric continuity possibly brings about a serious consequence, the connector device is required to retain the connector housings in a tightly fastened state even when it is exposed accidentally or deliberately to a fairly large external force, if not expected to possess the function of sealing the connector housings in their fastened state.